Backsliding on climate would drive Labour into obscurity, Zack Polanski says

Backsliding on climate action would drive the Labour party into political obscurity, Zack Polanski has warned, as trade union leaders said more drilling in the North Sea would not help UK workers. The Green party leader, speaking to the Guardian as searing heat swept the country for the second time this year, urged Andy Burnham – widely expected to be the UK’s next prime minister – to be bold on climate justice. He said any move to water down the party’s commitments would have dire consequences at the ballot box. “Half measures or backsliding on climate action would be a moral and political failure from Andy Burnham . He has the chance to be bold, and failing to do so will see our country get poorer and his party slip further into obscurity.” The leader of the UK’s biggest union, Unison, has called for no more drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea amid a debate within Labour and the trade union movement about the party’s climate commitments. However, the former health secretary Wes Streeting has called for more drilling in the North Sea, including giving the go ahead to the massive Rosebank oilfield . Sharon Graham, the leader of Unite, which represents workers in the oil and gas industry, also backs new drilling and said that the commitment of the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, to net zero would be a “ noose around the neck ” of job creation. …